Acer plans to celebrate 30th birthday with record sales

Taiwan’s Acer expects to celebrate its 30th year in business next year by posting record high sales as the world’s fourth largest PC vendor further cuts costs, sells stock it holds in other companies, and increases its market share, it said Monday.

Acer, which was founded in 1976, forecast its consolidated 2006 revenue will expand to NT$400 billion (US$12.42 billion), as its net income reaches NT$10 billion. By comparison, the company’s consolidated revenue for the first 11 months of this year totaled NT$293.4 billion, which has already exceeded its full year 2005 forecast of NT$283.6 billion.

The company said its performance this year and expectations for next year reflect the strength of what it calls its channel business model, which involves working closely with suppliers and channel partners on global logistics, business and customer service.

Acer will also gain next year by selling off some of the vast stock holdings it’s accumulated by investing in Taiwanese technology firms over the past 30 years. The company plans to sell 100 million shares of Wistron, its former contract manufacturing arm, to reduce its holding in the company to around 15.7% from 24.4% currently. Wistron, which Acer decided to spin off a few years ago, is one of the companies building Xbox 360 game consoles for Microsoft. The company also manufactures a range of computer and electronics gadgets for global IT firms.

Wistron shares ended up 4.2% at NT$43.35 each on the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Monday.

Acer also intends to sell all of its holdings in Hon Hai Precision Industry next year, a total of 11.84 million shares, the company said. Hon Hai is the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer by revenue.

Hon Hai’s stock closed up nearly 1% at NT$177.5 in Taiwan on Monday.